


for me, it's always you

by mikaylawrites



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Josh Goes to Madison, season 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:28:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28407768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikaylawrites/pseuds/mikaylawrites
Summary: "The rest of your life, huh?"Donna makes sure she and Josh are on the same page.
Relationships: Josh Lyman/Donna Moss
Comments: 12
Kudos: 105





	for me, it's always you

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Taylor Swift's "I Know Places"

“Do people actually enjoy living here? Or is everyone in Wisconsin a masochist?” Josh gripes as they step out into the sharp December air.

“Stop being such a baby,” Donna replies. “It’s not that much colder here than in DC and, if I recall correctly, I told you that you might want to bring a warmer jacket.”

He scoffs, but his indignation is undermined by the fact that he’s already shivering. “I don’t need a warmer jacket.”

“What you mean is that you don’t want my brothers to think you need a warmer jacket.”

“I’m not about to wear a parka, Donna. It’s embarrassing,” he grumbles. 

“Only you would think wearing a weather appropriate jacket is embarrassing,” she sighs, looping her arm through his. “This is my family Christmas, not professional politics.” 

Josh snorts and Donna knows he’s thinking that they may as well be the same thing. She can’t actually be frustrated with him, not when she knows he’s bent on making a good impression on her family. It felt like a longshot, asking him to spend Christmas in Madison when they’ve only been truly together for a little over a month. She was a little surprised when he agreed almost immediately; she’s been even more amazed at how well he’s handled it all. Her family is large and rowdy and not exactly easy on newcomers. So far he’s been subjected to everything from her tipsy uncle interrogating him about the President-elect’s education plan to her niece pounding on the bedroom door at seven this morning to alert them it was time to open presents. He’s been such a good sport, bearing it all with an almost unJosh-like affability. Now that everyone else is taking a post-lunch nap, Donna figures he could use some fresh air and a moment to breathe. 

“Thank you for coming home with me.” She leads him through the parking lot of her parents’ condo and out onto the street. “You saved me from the annual ‘we’re starting to worry that you’re going to end up alone but we’re too Midwestern to explicitly say it’ shtick.”

“So this was all a ruse to get your parents off your back?”

“Yup, pretty much,” she says, squeezing his bicep. 

“That was quite a gamble, Donnatella. I’m not exactly popular with parents.”

“My parents love you,” she tells him, because they do. It was meeting Josh on a campaign stop in Milwaukee that had convinced her parents she wasn’t completely insane to drop everything to work for a Democrat, of all people. They were endlessly grateful to him for being with her in Germany before they could get there and utterly confused when she came home last Christmas with no job and no mention of him. There was thinly-veiled relief in her mother’s voice when Donna called to tell her Josh would be joining them this year. 

Josh rolls his eyes, not quite believing her. “Your dad didn’t seem to love me this morning when he cornered me in the kitchen and asked what my intentions are with you. I was waiting for him to bring out the shotgun.”

“Of course he did,” she groans. “My mom asked me the same thing last night.”

“What did you tell her?” He sounds a little unsure and Donna suddenly wonders what he told her dad.

“The truth,” she says, making a split-second decision to allow this conversation to go exactly where it needs to. “That I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

Her admission stops Josh dead in his tracks. For a moment she wonders if he’s going to turn around and sprint all the way to the airport. It’s not that they haven’t alluded to marriage before, but three months ago they could barely be in the same room and now they’re talking about forever. It feels big. 

Ignoring her racing heart, she turns to look at him. To her complete surprise, although perhaps it shouldn’t be, he’s smirking. 

“Donna Moss, is this a proposal?” he asks. 

Her heart rate slows because she’s laid all her cards on the table - again - and he’s still here, solid and smiling beside her. She shoves him gently, softening the keen edge of the moment. “No such luck, wild thing. There’s no way you’re getting out of proposing to me. I’m expecting a candlelit dinner, string quartet, you down on one knee, the whole nine yards.”

“I think I can make that happen.” They start walking again and he takes her hand, smiling at her with something akin to adoration. This is the soft, sincere Josh she’s become increasingly familiar with since Hawaii. “The rest of your life, huh?”

She nods. “You’re it for me.”

“Yeah,” he says, his gaze warm in a way that makes her insides quiver. “You’re it for me too.”

They’re quiet then, listening to the snow crunching beneath their boots and each other’s breathing. The side street they’re on is empty and it feels like they’re the only two people in the world. Then again, with Josh, it’s always felt like they’re the only two people in the world. 

“Y’know,” he muses after a while, “it was fun this morning, with all your nieces and nephews. I couldn’t help but think that in a few years that’ll be our kids.”

“Kids?” she asks, emphasizing the plural.

“Oh yeah, I’m thinking nine, maybe ten of them,” he deadpans. 

“Don’t let my mom hear you say that,” she laughs, squeezing his hand. “You’ll get her hopes up.”

“Hey, I’m just trying to secure my place as ‘favorite son-in-law’ here.”

“I think you already have Mike beat on that front. My parents caught him and Teresa doing the deed on our living room couch when they were in high school and my dad’s had it out for him ever since.”

“Lucky you,” Josh teases, “I’m nothing if not proper.”

Donna sticks her tongue out at him. His laugh is loud and easy, and it knocks her nearly breathless with the realization that this is real. This is her life. She leans to kiss the corner of his mouth for no other reason than because she can, wondering if any of this will ever get old. Their joined hands swing a little as they walk and he’s stroking her palm with his thumb. “That’s exactly what I was thinking,” she says. “Lucky me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Responses to my other stories have been what's inspiring me to write more, so it's greatly appreciated!


End file.
